Feature image taken by Caitlin Purdom
2014 will be remembered as the death of Alt Lit, or, at the very least, its nadir, but amongst all of the think pieces written about the Alt Lit scene there was a clear dearth in the discussion of what made the movement so popular. I’d like to throw in my hat in the discussion and venture that the very best writing of the movement used the often derided concept of the New Sincerity. And this sense of unabashed sincerity is still being deftly deployed by new writers who, although they don’t write under the banner of Alt Lit, are adapting its aesthetics into their own craft.
I’d like to offer, then, a spotlight of some indie books that drip with sincerity, that can remind you of the good out there, that can shout “Alt Lit Ain’t Dead.”
1. Woodbine by Josh Spilker (Self-published, 2014)
Josh Spilker is doing something very clever in his chapbook of creative nonfiction and tweets. He’s writing off the deeper truths in his essays, but by doing so he reinforces them. Here’s what I mean: in his essay on visiting a decrepit K-Mart he describes the used couch from the employee’s break room in loving detail, then says
If this story was more dramatic, I would’ve taken direct action to get that couch. If this story was semi-autobiographical, rather that “memoir-ish,” I would’ve had a really nice climactic scene here, that you would’ve enjoyed and told all of your friends about. Maybe you’ll tell your friends about it anyway, even without that scene, we’ll see.
Such humbleness is disarming because it’s true: I am “tell[ing my] friends about it anyway,” and because I’m telling you about it, despite its lack of polish, I’m left with deeper thoughts about what is significant, like how a going-out-of-business sale at a K-Mart in Nashville, TN can teach universal truth.
2. Islamic Takeover 2013 by Rachel Pattycake (LUMA, 2014)
Rachel Pattycake’s book, a series of collages–Facebook posts, texts, magazines, selfies–undoes every old person’s grumblings about modern love. After every Millenialism follows a reaffirmation: “ratchet selfies circa yr bed” is replied to with “beautiful bird.”
I was without fear and
without pain, and living purely in
the present moment–no past and no future
she writes. Beautiful indeed.
3. Manic Pixie Dream Poems by Trevor L. Sensor (Bottlecap Press, 2015)
What draws me to this chapbook is its unfiltered emotion. These are breakup poems. They’re angst transferred to paper, as in the poem “Manic Pixie Dreams”:
I know I’ve said it before in other poems
but,
I miss you
I miss you
I miss you
I miss you
Sensor strips back all sense of artifice and craft to reveal the raw emotional state of a relationship that’s irreparable. These poems are stark. Lines such as
If the door to a future with you is closed,
Then none others must open
Let me sit in this empty room and weep
For at least there I’m safe
aren’t just the high mimetic. They ring of sincerity and of reality.
